China’s challenges after regime change in Sri Lanka
by Col. R. Hariharan
(This is the text updated on March 2, 2015 of the presentation made at a national seminar on “Understanding China – Indian perspective” organised jointly by the Chennai Centre for China Studies, and Institute for China Studies and the Nelson Mandela chair for Afro-Asian Studies, Mahatma Gandhi University at Kottyam on February 27 and 28, 2015.)
( March 3, 2015, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) China’s ambition to further its interests in Sri Lanka has suffered a setback after people elected the common opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena as President in preference to two-term President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the election held in January 2015.
China is probably familiar with President Sirisena as he had served as a senior minister and close aide of Rajapaksa during the last ten years. He was high in the hierarchy and served as the defence minister when President Rajapaksa was absent from the country during the Eelam War.
